A way of life focussing on the denial of sensual pleasures as a means of fostering spiritual development.
Although ascetic disciplines have long been respected in major religious traditions, they have rarely been given a sustained philosophical defense.

Presumed regularities in the co-existence or succession of particular mental contents.
Noted as unreliable by Locke, the process of association became a central feature of human thought in the philosophy of
Hume and Mill and in the psychology of
Skinner.

English philosopher who participated vigorously in published debates on metaphysical, epistemological, and religious issues.
Astell criticized
Locke and his followers for their failure to provide firm foundations for Christian doctrine.
In A Serious Proposal to the Ladies ,
she tried to establish a college for women and decried the "domestic tyrrany" inherent in traditional marriage.

The Greek term used by Pyrrho and
Epicurus for tranquillity, or the freedom from disturbance and pain that characterizes a balanced mind and constitutes its first step toward the achievement of pleasure
{Gk. ηδονη [hêdonê]}.

Belief that god does not exist. Unlike the agnostic, who merely criticizes traditional arguments for the existence of a deity, the atheist must offer evidence (such as the problem of evil) that there is no god or propose a strong principle for denying what is not known to be true.

British legal theorist.
Although he shared many of the utilitarian goals of
his friend Bentham, Austin became the foremost representative of
legal positivism.
He argued in
The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832)
and the unfinished Lectures on Jurisprudence (1863)
that, as a matter of practical fact, the law is nothing more than the command of a legitimate sovereign, enforced by the imposition of effective moral sanctions.

Recommended Reading:
Wilfrid E. Rumble, The Thought of John Austin: Jurisprudence, Colonial Reform, and the British Constitution (Athlone, 1985).

English philosopher who developed a unique method of approaching philosophical issues, beginning with a painstakingly detailed analysis of the the subtleties involved in day-to-day uses of ordinary language.

Self-conscious appropriation of the conditions of one's own existence and identity.
According to Heidegger, such deliberate reflection about the goals and values of life is the only successful response to the experience of
Angst without falling into
self-deception.

Recommended Reading:
Michael E. Zimmerman, Eclipse of the Self: The Development of Heidegger's Concept of Authenticity (Ohio, 1986)
and
Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity: Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus (MIT, 2000).

Kant's distinction between ways of choosing how to act.
Autonomous agents are self-legislating; they act according to the
categorical imperative of willing only what is
universalizable as moral law.
Heteronomous agents derive principles of action from outside themselves, by considering the objects or consequences of their choices or being influenced by the will of others.
At a personal level, then, autonomy is the practice of reflecting carefully upon one's choices. In the political context, autonomy is the right of self-determination.

Branch of philosophy that studies judgments about value, including those of both
aesthetics and ethics.
Thinking about value at this general level commonly emphasizes the diversity and incommensurability of the many sorts of things which have value for us.